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Week 3 is based around Volcarona! While some argue that Volcarona has lost its niche in the Mix and Mega metagame, it can still be a formidable threat with Quiver Dance. It is commonly used with either Red Orb for much stronger Fire type attacks and an added immunity to Water, or Cameruptite for it's stronger coverage options and better bulk at a cost of some speed, though other stones can definitely be used (cough Sablenite cough). Your challenge this week is to build any team around Volcarona by next Monday, 12/10, good luck!​

You have 1 week to create a team and explain why it is the best. A good team will preferably have been tested and while replays are no required, they are recommended.

Posting replays against unviable teams or people who clearly have no experience in Mix and Mega will hurt your team's case more than help it, so make sure to only post quality replays.

You will post your team with accompanying descriptions of how it works. This is not a full RMT but you should at least explain what the team does in a paragraph or so.

BUILD YOUR OWN TEAMS!!! I hope I never would need to actually enforce this rule but I guess it needs to be said.

Winners will be chosen by me/maybe some others on the council, and winners will be added to the Hall of Fame! Some weeks may have more than one winner if I feel that there are multiple very solid teams.

Don't bash other people's submissions, this is a competitive project but it is meant to be fun. Constructive criticism is allowed but needless insults aren't permitted.

On that note, be sure to have fun with this!! Creativity is encouraged but make sure your team is viable and handles the metagame properly

Rawrrr

Hey everyone :)
I'm submitting a team for the awesome Teambuilding Challenge that ITH is hosting!
This is the team :)
It's nothing particularly strong, and I haven't had much time to use the calculator to optimize the spreads, but I still had fun.

Basically, the team revolves around sablenite Volcarona, an idea that I got from ITH's post.
This pokemon serves as the team's main special wall, with good special bulk enhanced by the defensive stone. It pressures non-pinsirite Magearna and diancite Darkrai, but can't really stomach boosted blasto-Darkrai's Dark Pulse.
Volcarona also carries Will-O' Wisp to cripple physical attackers that aren't fire types, Fiery Dance as a reliable attack and situational self boost, Roost, and U-turn. This last move seems controversial but I aimed to gather as much momentum as possible. One could however very well opt to go for Quiver Dance + Fire Blast.

Raikou is there as a deterrent for any blue orb user (but must be wary of ground type attacks if switching in). Weather Ball serves as the main damage dealer, Hidden Power ice is there for lucarionite Zygarde and Landorus (the latter only on the switch, since faster salamencite/pinsirite variants outspeed Raikou). Magnet Rise was not my idea. I thought it'd be gimmicky, but I've seen it used to some success against ground types that aren't Zygarde and while it's definitely not op, it's fun to use. Volt Switch is there for momentum, but Thunderbolt can be run for more consistent damage.
Unfortunately, Raikou needs to run a rash nature if it wants to carry Weather Ball, which is suboptimal :/

Blue orb Skarmory acts as a defogger, P-Don check (shaky, but it's what I have), Entei + Ho-oh counter, and general physical wall. Toxic could be foregone for Whirlwind, but I tend to prefer the former since Raikou and Volcarona already pressure steel types.

Manectite Mew serves as a secondary defogger (Volcarona needs heavy hazard control) and physical check, it mainly covers Terrakion with this set. U-Turn is for momentum, but one could opt for Ice Beam if Zygarde and Pinsirite Terrakion pose too much of a threat.

Altarianite Zygarde is a good pokemon.
In the specifics, it offensively pressures Darkrai, Terrakion, lucarionite and pinsirite Zygarde amongst others. It could try to run Substitute to exploit Blissey, but forgoing a move is quite hard as it is.

Finally, Yveltal serves as an offensive Lunala and Ultra-Necrozma check, amongst other things. Dark Pulse and Oblivion Wing are standard STABs, U-Turn is for momentum and Heat Wave punishes Magearna on the switch (although Focus Blast and Foul Play are also valid options).
Roseli Berry offers some breathing time against fairy type attacks, but only once. I specifically had diancite Lele in mind, since according to coverage it could wreck the defensive backbone of the team.

The team probably struggles against Kartana, blastoisinite Darkrai and Pinsirite Terrakion, off the top of my head (and against a well-played P-Ogre).
Besides, it'd likely enjoy to have a cleric and a stealth rock setter. I don't have the time nor the will power to solve all of its problems.
I'll try to edit in more replays if I have the time, but ladder is kinda dead rn.
Any constructive criticism is extremely well met :D

PS. If you don't want this team to win, submit a better one before long :) (It shouldn't be hard!)

Replay(s):This game does not show much, if not that people won't expect a sablenite Volcarona and will set rocks in its face, and that Raikou really capitalizes on free switch ins.This game is a mid-ladder win, just to testify that the team can manage to get past some of the metagame staples, if it tiptoes around (and with some luck on my part).

This team is revolved around Red Orb Volcarona, a mon that isn't commonly used anymore but has a good niche with Quiver Dance and and Water immunity due to its Orb. Arceus Ground take cares of mons that annoy Volcarona such as Primal Groudon, Zygardes, Entei, and Terrakion. Will-o-wisp catches Pinsirite mons, and Blue Orb mons such as Golisopod and Buzzwole. Mandibuzz is my defensive pivot that checks Lunala and certain physical attacking mons in general. Mandibuzz is also helpful for getting mons like Volcarona in safely and force out threats. Kartana is another fearsome threat which can tear apart defensive cores and Volcarona can offensively check mons that would annoy it such as Mew, Buzzwole, Zapdos, and Skarm while Kartana gets rid of mons like P-Ogre and Certain Arceus forms. Pins Metagross is the offensive rocker which checks both Landorus and Noivern. It also checks Kartana and Altarianite Zygarde. Speaking of Zygarde, it's the final slot for this team because it offensively checks Darkrai, fighting types, and opposing nonAltarianite Zygardes.

eyes on fire

the idea is to use the many switches volcarona forces, as well as how common its counters are, to generate setup opportunities for your other teammates. u-turn is a fantastic move on a pokemon like volcarona, because of blissey and hooh - combined with terrakion, they both eliminate each other's checks. bug buzz is there to completely deter pokemon such as mew from checking it. wish blissey is awesome for this team, due to the support it gives stuff - blissey is setup fodder for a lot of the tier, but it's actually a good mon on this team. giratina's the obligatory terrak check, mew is the secondary terrak check. the three also form a nice defensive core, esp w/ wish support from bliss which lets a lot of em switch into things they normally wouldnt be able to. magearna is there bc it's a nice last mon for cm luna etc since bliss has wish.

Fun team that utilizes a bunch of neat sets I could see developing more in the future. Before I go any further huge S/o to Jrdn. He initially actually came up with Sablenite Volcarona (yes, even before Hills mentioned it in the Week 3 challenge announcement) and we worked on several variations of how we could utilize it and this was our initial take on how it could be used in a pivot-oriented balance-esqe build with some nice offensive focus. I'm simply posting because I worked hard on honing any flaws I saw in our initial building and fixed it up to the best of my ability.

The perks of Sablenite Volcarona are pretty nice. It checks Alt Zyg, Alt Genesect, Kartana, Magearna, and is bulky enough overall to be a general nuisance to passive walls like Lati Pex and take a hit and then pivot out to the breaker of choice. The main problem about using it is the competition it faces from Sablenite Moltres which shares almost every perk Volcarona has while also possessing better overall utility for defogging and a better mu against Alt Lando, Defensive Pdon and such. However, Volc has three reasons to be considered for a few builds over Moltres. 1) It can beat Alt Zyg without needing to run Will-O which allows for the use of Toxic 2) Fiery Dance is a really neat move that allows Volcarona to effectively beat switch in and beat Calm Mind Magearnas, and actually serve as a funky late game wincon option if it can get some boosts and the remaining opposing pokemon struggle to kill it which are two things Moltres can not accomplish 3) The unique lure factor. Prior to brief talk of this mon and this team being dropped, Sablenite Volcarona is an unknown mon. Nobody is going to look at your team at preview and think "Oh look nice Sablenite Volcarona there"... So that's something that you can exploit in specific scenarios.

The Lunala is a really neat set my dude xavgb came up with that I've been meaning to try out myself for some time. This is a defog support Lunala that sacrifices a significant amount of its bulk for raw power and the immediate threat of a 200 BP Z move. The great thing is that Lunala's Shadow Shield still allows it to fully check rockers like SD Rocks Pdon and Alt Lando while also being able to check other offensive threats like Luc Zyg and the rare Pinsirite Kartana (in the event that poor Volc gets lured or something) that this team would get smashed by otherwise.

Rotom-W is a fairly wacky mon that is... not great but I felt fit this team as it checks Ho-oh, Sala Lando, Defensive Pdon, Pins mons like Terrakion and Magearna, Groundceus and Waterceus, and more while also serving as a second pivot alongside Volcarona. Defog can be used over Hydro Pump or Toxic for nice double Defog support for Volcarona but keep in mind that you are picking your poison there. If you remove Hydro pump you hurt the Sala Lando and Terrak mu and if you remove Toxic you no longer touch Defensive Pdon, can be stalled out by Ho-oh if you aren't careful, and can also be easily overcome by Calm Mind Groundceus.

Darkrai is paired with Volc because this is a breaker that greatly appreciates the mons Volc can check and is a generally potent breaker that can take advantage of the u-turn momentum Volc generates and acts as pretty much the only means of decently checking Lunala. It comes in and kills things and loves how Volcarona can check mage for it (which is one reason Volc is used on this team over Moltres).

Primal Groudon is the rocker of choice and is a neat set in SD Rocks with Rock Tomb as the 4th move. When I used this team, I ended up struggling pretty hard against Lati Toxapex so Smack Down can and probably should be used over Rock Tomb... Defensive Rocks is also a very splashable option that can find a place on almost any team these days. But I thought SD Rock Tomb was really neat and underrated and I've had some relative success with it so I just thought i'd share it :>.

Alt Zyg is here because... Alt zyg is simply the best speed control option available in MnM right now and it revenges Luc Zyg, Darkrai, and Terrakion which are mons this team is quite weak to otherwise. It has a nice 4th move in Facade. Something that punishes the Will-O Groundceus' you see running around these days as well as any kind of status like Toxic or T-spikes. Return is always a perfectly fine choice over Facade but once again, this team is lowkey "Andy's mini exhibition for heat sets in the current MnM meta" so I wanted to showcase that particular set as well.

Team is quite weak against Luc Zyg as Lunala is pretty much the only answer to be found and if Multiscale is broken it's going to be an absolute menace. Darkrai and Terrakion are terrifying and the only great way of dealing with these is the insurance of Alt Zyg revenging and Lunala being able to take on Terrakion particularly if it struggles to hit Edges. I had a horrible time against Red Orb Darkrai using this team for that reason. They can be played around, but it's hard for sure. Focus Blast and Moonblast Lunala is also scary and you should always be careful hard switching Darkrai into it for this reason. There may be other weaknesses but those are the 4 that come immediately to mind.

Nice to see Defensive Volcarona getting a little love after all of the haters throwing offensive under the bus ;) but yeah that's all from me hope this team provides some nice inspiration for some neat ways to use some versatile mons in MnM.

congrats to skysolo14 on winning this week's challenge, and ty for Andyboy and xavgb for voting on this week's slate.
Votes:
stresh: skysolo
me: andy
andy: skysolo

You have 1 week to create a team and explain why it is the best. A good team will preferably have been tested and while replays are no required, they are recommended.

Posting replays against unviable teams or people who clearly have no experience in Mix and Mega will hurt your team's case more than help it, so make sure to only post quality replays.

You will post your team with accompanying descriptions of how it works. This is not a full RMT but you should at least explain what the team does in a paragraph or so.

BUILD YOUR OWN TEAMS!!! I hope I never would need to actually enforce this rule but I guess it needs to be said.

Winners will be chosen by me/maybe some others on the council, and winners will be added to the Hall of Fame! Some weeks may have more than one winner if I feel that there are multiple very solid teams.

Don't bash other people's submissions, this is a competitive project but it is meant to be fun. Constructive criticism is allowed but needless insults aren't permitted.

On that note, be sure to have fun with this!! Creativity is encouraged but make sure your team is viable and handles the metagame properly

Now the Teambuilding Challenge will be taking a hiatus for a few weeks, as we have another announcement:Mix and Mega is looking for Sample Team submissions! It's been a good 9 months since we last updated our samples, and most are horridly outdated. We ask everyone that if they have teams they believe should be a sample to submit it to this thread. After a few weeks or so we will have the samples updated! Please consider the following when posting:

An importable of your team is required either from a pasting site such as Pokepaste/Pastebin or using the hide tag.

Explanations of how the teams work is required with your submission and what roles the team members serve on the team. It should highlight the focus or intent of the team, you may also include any successes with you have had with the team such as tournament games.

Do not post teams that have already been submitted by other players under any circumstances.

It is suggested that you justify your teams, do not post teams that look good in the teambuilder, but haven't been tested, it is suggested to use replays of evidence of how your team actually works, such as from tournaments or high level ladder games.

Your team should reflect the Mix and Mega metagame, and teams with 'underrated threats' or unviable heat sets aren't going to get you cookie points here. A good rule is your Pokemon should be on the VR and their stone should be next to their name.

This is a resource not a competition: we are giving you time to test out these teams and really show us what they can do so take advantage of this time.

This Team is an edit from a previous team i used in OMWC. It was built around Adamant Metagrossite Kartana, which punches holes in mnm teams. To cover fire types such as Pdon, Ho-oh, and Entei I added a Blue Orb Skarm as it is a great switchin into those mons. I decided to put Primal Groudon into the team as this team needed a check to water types such as POgre and Golisopod and a rocker. Arceus Ground is there as another Pdon check as well as checking mons like Terrakion, Zygarde, and Landorus-T as Wisp can cripple those threats. Gyara Toxapex is another defensive mon that can check mons like Lunala, Magearna (to an extent), and Darkrai. It can status Sablenite user thanks to its ability Mold Breaker and can stop setup mons with Haze. For the last mon, It is going to be Pinsirite Zeraora, which is a fearsome threat in the tier with its Electric and Flying Stab (There's not alot of mons that can check that). Fake Out is there to be able to check fast offensive threats, namely Diancie Darkrai and bulk up is your main setup option.

This team is an older one that I had a ton of success with in Seasonal. It's just a solid Bulky Offense team that was centered around Kartana, a very strong Pokemon in this metagame. I then added Kyogre-Primal, as it is a super potent special attacker in this meta that capitalizes on beating Kartana's checks and vice-versa. Once I started with this core, I wanted to start with a hazard setter that covered some of the core's problems. The most pressing threat that I noticed to the core was Altarianite Entei, so I decided to go with Swords Dance Groudon-Primal as my Stealth Rock setter. Swords Dance and Smack Down allow Groudon-Primal to pressure all Defoggers and bouncers. With that I had an issue with speed control, so I decided that an Altarianite Entei of my own would be best. These four Pokemon were all weak to Zygarde and Terrakion, with only Entei to revenge, so I added Calm Mind Arceus-Fairy as a check to those. I gave Arceus-Fairy Fire Blast so that it could break through opposing Magearna easier, as Pinsirite and Latiasite are more common than Blue Orb right now. For the final slot I felt that I lacked any counterplay to hazards, so a Sablenite Defogger was ideal. Another weakness that was apparent was Lunala, which could sweep the entire team with Webs up, so I went with Sablenite Mandibuzz as my Defogger. Mandibuzz also provides a slow pivot for the team that gives the offensive core of Kartana and Kyogre-Primal to come in easier, allowing for a lot more opportunities to put offensive pressure on. Overall the team has shown to be incredibly solid over the past few months and is a very good example of what Bulky Offense teams are packing in this meta.

For this second team, I already knew that I wanted to build around Ditto, as it is an incredibly potent speed control option in this meta, as most offensive threats are checked by a faster version of themselves. So when I started this team, I decided to ignore the fact that Ditto was on the team and start out with a solid defensive core. I began with a hazard and hazard removal core of Groudon-Primal and Blue Orb Skarmory, as they have a nice defensive synergy that gives Groudon-Primal chances to set up. I then went with Aggronite Buzzwole, as I knew that the original core struggled a lot with physical attackers like Kartana, Terrakion and Zygarde. Buzzwole is a solid blanket check to physical attackers, and pairs very well with Blue Orb Skarmory. Next up I focused more on supporting Ditto, and went with Sablenite Magearna, as I was weak to Lunala and Darkrai. Sablenite Magearna is also incredibly solid with Ditto, as it can slow pivot really well into Ditto to cover offensive threats. I finished off with Calm Mind Arceus-Fairy, as I wasn't fully confident on my Terrakion and Darkrai matchups, and wanted a special attacking setup sweeper. Earth Power on it allows it to soft check Swords Dance Groudon-Primal as well, which with Smack Down would've been a threat to the team. Circling back to Ditto, I was sure to make sure that Ditto was able to beat any of the Pokemon I was worried about, but wasn't the primary check to those Pokemon. It can offensively check or revenge a TON of threats in the metagame, including Groudon-Primal, Terrakion, Kartana, Lunala, and many other offensive threats. Overall the team has a super unique feel to it and I love the way it works, it's arguably my favorite team I've made over the past few months. It does have a small issue with Lunala, as I don't usually feel comfortable using Sablenite Mage as its defensive check, but when paired with Ditto, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

This final team on paper looks like an ancient team, as it features a couple Pokemon that have lost popularity over the past 6 months. However, don't judge a book by its cover, as the way this team looks on paper does no justice to how well it works. I started this team off with Aggronite Mew, as it covers a lot of metagame threats, such as Kartana, Pinsirite Terrakion, and Tapu Lele. Aggronite Mew is a nice blanket check to a good portion of the metagame, but on glaring weakness it has is Darkrai, Groudon-Primal and other Ground types in general (though Landorus-T and Zygarde both fear Will-O-Wisp), so I decided to pair it with a core of Blue Orb Buzzwole and Sablenite Zapdos, who form a solid core that handles Stealth Rock setters well. Zapdos is able to run Hidden Power Ice over Heat Wave on this team as Aggronite Mew already checks Kartana well, which allows Zapdos to beat Salamencite Landorus-Therian. I then went with Groudon-Primal as my Stealth Rock setter, as I was weak to Kyogre-Primal and Calm Mind Magearna. Groudon-Primal is a really solid glue for balance teams, and I decided to go with its defensive variation with Overheat and Toxic so that defensive checks such as Arceus-Ground would struggle to come in consistently. Next up I noticed a gigantic weakness to Lunala, as is standard with most Aggronite Mew teams, so I went with the best Lunala check in the metagame, Gyaradosite Toxapex. Gyaradosite Toxapex also gives the team access to Toxic Spikes, which makes the team's job a lot easier against bulkier teams. Looking at the team, the biggest problem with the team was speed control, so I went with Altarianite Zygarde, as it is the best speed control option in the metagame with -atespeed. The EV spread is something stresh came up with, and it is designed to live two of Manectite Mew's Ice Beams. Since I didn't have a lot of counterplay for status, I decided to go with Facade over Return so that Zygarde can increase its sweeping potential if it gets statused. Overall, this team is a lot bulkier than most of the teams you see in the current Mix and Mega metagame since covering all of the offensive threats in this meta is incredibly difficult, but I feel that this team does a good job at doing so.

yeet

A quick note before we get into it - I decided on an arbitrary week before getting into the trends of this usage, mainly because the lower rounds may pollute some of the true usage stats, such as Mew winrate. Here (https://pastebin.com/bzrJ0d0R , courtesy of In the Hills) are the full usage stats if you want to compare and contrast.https://pokepast.es/1458f74e982e3966

First thing that pokes out is the absurdly high Magearna usage (60.38%) and fairly high winrate (56.25%). This is due to Magearna's high splashability as a compressing steel that can put a lot of roles into one Pokemon, taking a lot of stress off of any sort of team you would place it on. However, this is not necessarily a reasoning for S, as offensive teams have a large variety of ways to play around Magearna without actually getting proper answers, and abusing this opportunity is fairly tough for some teams to pull off.

Zygarde is down on both usage and winrate, potentially due to the heavy rise in usage of Kartana. Kartana also rose quite heavily in lieu of this, although in main part due to Adamant finally giving it the damage output it needs, and its niches as a good midgame breaker on offensive teams. Speaking of offensive teams, Landorus-Therian got a very high winrate (63.16%) with respect to usage (35.85%), and this is probably an indication that offense is on the rise due to Landorus lacking strong presence outside of faster teams.

The new Psychic-type in town is Lunala - having a high winrate (62.5%) as well as good usage (22.64%). In contrast to Ubers, this greater usage is impacted by the lack of Dark-types in Mix and Mega, with revenge killers such as Yveltal and Marshadow being far less common, thus demanding a defensive answer to most teams. For a lot of teams, this is difficult to afford with the exception of a few pressurable targets in Sablenite Magearna and Mandibuzz. It also preys on Mew, the other side of the Psychic-types in this seasonal. Mew was originally quite good in a balance-centric meta, however, as abusers of its presence such as Lunala and Darkrai got more usage, Mew has started to fall off, and this is evident in its pitiful winrate.

Webs! Both Shuckle and its antagonizers such as Noivern and Zeraora have gotten more usage in this seasonal than any other tournament thus far. Whilst it may have gotten skewed a bit by me and user stresh, in a way this still shows how Webs is becoming a mainstream playstyle in Mix and Mega due to several enhanced wallbreakers benefitting from the style such as Mixed Swords Dance Primal Groudon, Landorus-Therian and even Magearna to an extent. On the other hand, the checks to these have rose for other reasons. Noivern is something I used extensively this ssnl due to its capability to revenge kill / switch in to the majority of Fire-types in the metagame and check Primal Groudon whilst still keeping the rest of my team healthy. It is also useful in that it has Super Fang, allowing it to punish targets such as Magearna that would otherwise easily abuse it. Unfortunately, as shown later on this ssnl, Noivern struggles with the popularity of the other strong Webs-killer, Zeraora. Zeraora has risen to prominence due to its capability to check Flying-types as well as be a great revenge killer and potential sweeper, making it a great package for bulky offense teams that need greater role compression.

EVs: 20 HP / 20 Def / 240 SpA / 116 SpD / 112 Spe

Since the Mix and Mega Fall Seasonal is now finished, I thought that i would drop some of the teams I've been using over that time period (not sample submissions). A lot of these are out of fashion in the meta now since these builds were made over the span of 4 months, so i'll use that as an excuse to talk about the meta changes that stopped me from continuing to use the older ones.

This was a team that i built just as the seasonal was starting, based around a fast manectite latias. The ev spread here gives it 398 speed, enough to outspeed adamant kartana but more importantly lucarionite terrakion which hits 394. The special attack evs allow it to reliably OHKO lucarionite terrakion with psychic, and then the rest is thrown into defense to maximize physical bulk with the remaining evs. Unlike most answers to lucarionite terrakion, it can't be broken by a correct taunt play whilst it roosts, making it one of the best answers you could have at the time. This is a cool perk, however it isn't really the reason that it turned out to be so effective on this team. In this case, access to powerful stabs and good speed turned out to be very helpful in deterring certain mons from switching in, and it fits well with the rest of this team's ability to sponge attacks and retaliate with stronger ones. Another big reason to use latias is its access to healing wish, allowing it to bring back weakened mons on the team whilst getting off an intimidate and clearing a free turn for the next mon to come in safely to receive its hp. These perks both proved to be very valuable niches for the metagame at the time, disrupting a lot of offensive cores by giving mons that would normally be overwhelmed by the sheer power of these cores a second chance, whilst also not giving wallbreakers such as darkrai the free switches they were used to in a metagame full of manectite mews.

The two natural additions to any team featuring healing wish are defensive pdon and sablenite magearna. These two mons are capable of switching into a large portion of the mnm metagame due to their great bulk, solid typings and powerful moves that can often OHKO their targets. Healing wish accounts for their lack of reliable recovery, allowing them to switch into top metagame threats more than usual, often providing enough extra switchins so that the common cores designed to break them would instead lose. Next up was defog pinsirite kartana, which provided me a solid offensive threat which could also work against altarianite landorus-t and toxic spikes. Golisopod provides a second hazard, priority and a general ground check, which was very useful in taking on some of the threats that the team is weaker to defensively. At this point, the team felt quite weak to alt zyg and mandibuzz, so i decided to add a second rocker in altarianite landorus-therian, which could also provide an extra emergency check to terrak if latias wanted to healing wish something else lategame.

Unfortunately, this team is slightly outdated now, due to rises in usage of alt zyg, kartana and lunala it's much harder to play without solid checks to these three, and at any point that the first two can potentially win, golisopod becomes set up bait, which is risky. They can all be held off by hazards and some combination of mons (normally mage and pdon), but with so many teams featuring zyg and kart it's only a matter of time before you run into them paired with the right core and lack the resources to stop them. The team may also sometimes struggle to break newer balances due to altarianite lando-t and pinsirite kartana being more well-known nowadays, and it lacks a great way to pressure ho-oh if it comes in before rocks go up. Despite these flaws, I still felt that this team deserved a longer description, since it was one of the teams i could trust more going into tough matches, and nearly every time that i lost with it was the result of a significant misplay on my part, rather than any matchup issue with the team.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7mixandmega-809894053 This replay is a fun showcase of accurate aggressive play by geerat whilst using this team, also taking advantage of the available healing wish in the back as an opportunity for pdon to 1v1 lando-t even if it decided to click earthquake.

So this was an idea that came up when i was talking with andy and chazm about how to innovate webs for the current meta. Pinsirite zeraora helps webs deal with noivern and at least stop pins mage from sweeping. When i first heard the idea, i wasn't at all convinced, due to the utility of pins mage on webs builds and the fact that zeraora has a weaker initial damage output than most other mons used on webs. I wanted the team to separate itself from most other webs by being playable as a rocks HO more often, since shuckle is just as good a rocks setter as it is a webs setter, so i decided to include darkrai+kartana, as well as alt zyg to help out with speed control. Pdon is just pdon, entei check that also breaks really well and has a high base power, 100 percent accurate move to close out games with webs up.

Overall, I'd still be happy to use this team but I would probably directly switch rai for either lucarionite or diancite tapu lele so that the team loses less momentum against atespeed. Lucarionite is able to live one hit from the threatening flying mons and appreciates the webs speed drop more, but diancite can outspeed kart outside of webs and prevent noivern from getting off a defog from any amount of hp. Luckily even with this change the cores still operate in roughly the same manner as tapu lele uses non-aggronite buzzwole as bait and it still draws magearna in to get chipped heavily, which helps kart zera and zyg win more easily later in the game. I would probably also change the kartana to jolly, to solidify the noivern matchup a bit more.

These are two variants of a backbone i've been using for fat balance teams (I'm not posting full teams because i've never quite finished it perfectly and i've tried a few different filler slots). The first one was an edit to the second suggested by qt, and is the one that i prefer right now. These mons cover a lot of the meta's top breakers and top rockers, but it notably struggles against mixed sd don, terrakion (especially the guessing game involved in the second variant) and webs, due to shuckle's ability to set rocks on these builds, as well as some more fringe mons such as pinsirite kartana for the second build and lucarionite tapu lele for both. Honestly i'm not convinced by this style at all with the diversity of the current meta, but there was a point a couple months ago where these builds could take on anything that was actually in use, so i've decided to mention them but for now these are outdated unfortunately.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7mixandmega-827626916 This was the most recent version that i tried, although kartana was just a last minute filler addition. Gliscor was an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, by fixing my mixed sd don matchup whilst being able to defog rocks away on the very common eruption pdon found on webs. A more serious last slot would be some sort of terrak switchin, and whilst i did bring cm split on the mage in this game, a heart swap mage may be more appropriate to handle calm mind lele.

Balance built around tini to help with pogre. Mandibuzz is a generally bulky slow pivot that can also keep rocks off against defensive don, one of the few commonly used tini switchins. Mandibuzz is supported by defog kartana which helps to keep rocks off against altarianite landorus-therian, whilst also occasionally being able to clean/break given the right situation. Tyranitar here supports mandibuzz against cores involving moonblast lunala, notably kart+lun is hard to deal with for this team otherwise. It also provides a check to fires apart from pdon and entei as well as a resist for noivern and all three variants of darkrai (typically they don't run focus blast due to a general lack of targets in the meta compared to thunder), whilst also having access to SR. Arceus-ground here runs two attacks+wisp, a set that i'm a fan of for its ability to check a large portion of the physical meta whilst not baiting in too many wallbreakers (ho-oh is the most notable one that groundceus does let in freely). Groundceus also provides an immunity to mage's volt switch, since the team lacks pdon to block it. Altarianite zygarde fills the last slot to help out with terrakion, generally give speed control and also to help clean and limit the opponent's plays by forcing them to deal with another offensive threat.

I can't say i've ever felt truly comfortable with this team but it has won enough for me to talk about it at least. Tapu lele and ho-oh matchups look particularly weak here, since any ho-oh team that's able to stop ttar from getting rocks up will wall most of the team for a while, but also kartana can easily become a problem if mandibuzz is overloaded, which will happen with a few cores popping up now as kart usage increases. The team also gets pressured by toxic entei, because arceus-ground is a key part of the team and can't really afford to be poisoned against a lot of builds.

In general for most of the rounds I was bringing geerat webs in between those other teams, iirc it won 7/7 of the games i used it in ssnl and is definitely the most dominant webs build in the meta right now. Alas it's not mine, so i won't be sharing the pokepaste here.

yeet

The metagame as a whole has stayed relatively stable for the past few months. Some mons have risen, some mons have dropped, but in reality it's been the same for a good while. Here are my thoughts on how the current metagame operates and how I have adapted to attempt to beat these changes.

1) Webs are really good.

Due to solid webs counterplay being scarce (see: a lack of powerful Flying-type threats), it is key that a lot of teams as of now are more prepared for it than ever. New Pokemon that have been rarely experimented with have come out to combat this - the main two being Noivern and Zeraora, both of which I find to be very solid offensive utility, and in some cases they are capable of breaking balances in half, meaning that their presence is not only for these hyper offense cases.

The standard webs team from what I've seen generally consists of a few nearly mandated Pokemon:

Mixed SD Eruption Primal Groudon
Landorus-Therian (predominantly Salamencite, however, some can be Altarianite)
Pinsirite Magearna (with Explosion near 100% of the time, sometimes webs can get away without it)
Kartana
Lunala
and of course, Shuckle.

Of course, there are many teams which get away from this standardized variation, which is why I consider them to be nearly mandated. Some other threats that happen to pair well with Webs are Lucarionite Tapu Lele and slower variants of Darkrai, which can help Pinsirite Magearna (and vice versa for the others) clear a win condition for the opposing team by removing the opponent's Steel-type through extreme pressure. In some variations of Webs, the team can swap out Magearna for Zeraora, making its matchup against Noivern a fair bit better whilst giving the team some more immediate speed control.

Now, how do these two Pokemon beat these standard variations of webs and, how can other Pokemon help with breaking Webs without the exclusive use of these two Pokemon? In Noivern's case, it can either directly counterlead the Webs setter if it has Taunt, or in the case that it doesn't, it can wear down the opponent's Flying resist very quickly with Super Fang. What also makes it quite interesting, is that if the opposing Webs setter is only capable of laying down Sticky Webs, then Noivern will actually be able to hard switch into Primal Groudon's Eruption, something very few Pokemon can claim to be able to do and then successfully revenge Primal Groudon with. This is just one of the many benefits Noivern provides, particularly to teams with Magearna, as the high power punish can pave the way for Calm Mind Magearna to win where it would otherwise struggle to break generic balance cores such as defensive Primal Groudon + Sablenite Magearna.

Zeraora takes a different way about it - rather than attempt to anti-lead the Sticky Web setter and punish proactive play, Zeraora instead plays the role of a wallbreaker that is unaffected by Webs entirely. Due to its solid STAB combination, it is difficult to find a proper way of beating Zeraora on Webs teams without actually utilizing potentially sub-optimal Pokemon such as Manectite Magearna (which is an entirely viable build by the way). It is also one of the few speed control Pokemon to actually have a defensive role, and in this case, it is able to act as a Flying-resist, preventing Magearna from outright winning the game in traditional means of beating resistances.

These two Pokemon are some of the few examples of Pokemon which are difficult to play around without answers. However, most Pokemon are not this way:

2) Offensive counterplay is something that is required knowledge in this metagame.

I ask myself most of the time when building in a fairly reactive manner, as I am a balance player at heart, but when it comes to Mix and Mega you simply cannot be just passive. Pokemon like Terrakion and Magearna are peeking around every corner ready to pounce on any team which has something they can take a switch on, and as such more offensive teams are popping up to attempt to beat this style of play. This sort of playstyle does unfortunately invalidate some Pokemon from existing, and we'll take a look at the losers of this change in pacing.

Loser #1: Blissey

Blissey used to be a beast in the metagame, but ever since offensive teams became known, Blissey has dropped off the metagame for near enough good. With Terrakion and Magearna peeping every corner, and Landorus-Therian bypassing Blissey as a Magic Bounce user, Blissey has simply become too passive to get any good use anymore, and its pure existence invalidates the capability of offensive counterplay entirely. Even Wish builds with Primal Groudon and Buzzwole aren't exactly capable due to adaptations of these stallbreakers that cause these counterplay options to be nullified. For example, Pinsirite Terrakion is capable of Swords Dancing up, facading as a standard Terrakion, however, with this counterplay in place, it is completely possible for Buzzwole to fall lure to this set. As for Magearna...

Skarmory takes a huge backseat due to most teams being unable to afford repeated switchins of Flying-resistant wallbreakers such as Magearna and Zeraora, as well as being unable to take on Fire-spam cores. It unfortunately is attacked repeatedly by these new changes as a result of Landorus-Therian being incredibly good, thus taking it down a notch in power. I expect it to drop in the next update due to its passivity and general lack of checking capabilities compared to Noivern and other Flying-type tanks.

Loser #3: Mew

Mew has also taken a massive hit with the rise of Lunala and Darkrai, two extremely powerful wallbreakers that when given multiple free switchins are capable of taking out their resists alone. It also has a horrible problem of letting in Ho-oh and Magearna despite its expansive options for its third moveslot.

With that in mind, my final thought, and only real issue with the current metagame:

3) Magearna is... somewhat broken, but at the same time somewhat not?

Magearna is capable of forcing opponents to follow a certain mindset when checking it: the very same one that I noted at the top, however, it is honestly far more punishing to have certain ways of answering than others. Due to Magearna's extreme versatility in stones, you basically HAVE to have a Fire-type on your team - which, granted, isn't too hard to do, but with how many free switches it can grab, even on Pokemon that would be able to deal with their offensive variants, it's extremely hard to get durable answers for. This is why Latiasite has risen quite considerably in the past few months - mandatory Ground-types needed to check Sablenite and revenge kill Cameruptite and other 'bread-and-butter' variants are happily set up on by Latiasite, with their only shared checks being Primal Groudon, Entei and Ho-oh (and Sablenite Magearna). To deal with all of these variants safely requires about three Pokemon that when combined together form a common weakness - usually a weakness to Ground, which Pokemon such as Lucarionite Zygarde and Landorus-Therian (it doesn't also help that Landorus-Therian is an excellent Stealth Rock setter, leading the path for Ho-oh to be eviscerated) can abuse.

The issue with checking Magearna the way that people do is not directly Magearna - there are many Pokemon that can help out with checking it, however, it is the great amount of switchins Magearna provides to its teammates that makes it arguably broken. For example, some balances have adapted to running Milotic to remove the presence of Cameruptite Magearna on MageOgre cores, however, as far as I'm concerned, all that's happened is that there's a rise in Latiasite usage, which is actually capable of 1v1ing defensive Primal Groudon without Smack Down -

In many ways this makes for a particularly difficult choice to make for the builder - do they go for an offensive Primal Groudon knowing that they will in three hits (potentially two if Stealth Rock are up), or do they find another check that just outright lets Sablenite through? This doesn't even note other forms of punishes - the ones that I would otherwise highlight are Pinsirite, effectively being able to trade a mon or better, and Cameruptite TR - which highly punishes anyone without a Primal Groudon or Ho-oh.

However, the main way to get around this is exactly through the same way mentioned in 2) - offensively check Magearna so that it can never come in in this state. In some way running 116 Spe EVs or more actually fixes this way of beating Magearna, since it means that Magearna is capable of getting to +2 before being blasted with an Overheat (0 SpA Groudon-Primal Overheat vs. +2 248 HP / 0 SpD Magearna in Harsh Sunshine: 230-272 (63.3 - 74.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO), however this may impact its overall defensive utility by a fairly heavy drop in power. My issue with this is that a lot of previously usable mons are actually completely invalidated by this - Arceus-Ground is unfortunately a big lure for Latiasite, and a fair few Pinsirite attackers do not like Magearna coming in for free, making preparation extremely difficult, particularly for balance teams, where offensive pressure is not in great supply to try and check it.

So - what's the solution to beating this? Well: Magearna ironically gets so much usage because it's so good at beating itself. Sablenite Magearna almost invalidates all of these other Calm Mind Magearna sets - only really Pinsirite and Cameruptite w/ Flash Cannon can actually break past it. Pair that with a strong Ground-type, and a Flying-resist, and you're done, really. The issue then comes with the fact that it may become a lot harder to actually block hazards, due to Pokemon like Primal Groudon coming in and threatening out the Magic Bouncer in question. (if Magearna's HP is not needed however, it may be a bit harder due to the following calcs:
0 SpA Groudon-Primal Overheat vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Magearna in Harsh Sunshine: 300-354 (82.4 - 97.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
0 Atk Groudon-Primal Precipice Blades vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Magearna: 278-330 (76.3 - 90.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO)
In any case, the teammates then required for this role can let in Magearna (mainly Latiasite) quite easily, and this can really wear at the team, due to how many switchins Magearna gets to force. This is the only real string that makes me think Magearna is still healthy in the metagame, and I would really like to consider how everyone else thinks of it, as sets continue to evolve and antagonize the current metagame.

BEGINNER'S HYPER OFFENSE (Note: If you don't 100% love the sets of my pokemon, I have put some alternative sets to some pokes in the in-depth analysis. If you don't like the actual team itself, scroll to the bottom and see Alt. Pokes)

My aim for this team was to create an easily accessible sample teams for beginners to introduce them to Mix and Mega.

This a sample team I created to show the huge threat offense has on the Mix and Mega meta. Designed to be relatively easy to use as an ideal sample for beginners, it is also fun to play (boost KARTANA TO OBLIVION!) while still being quite strong. With 4 astounding wall breakers are 2 semi-breaker semi-support, it practically annihilates all stall prospects on the opposing team.

As the title says, this team is designed to help beginners learn about many aspects of Mix and Mega gameplay. First of all, it shows how offense is something that cannot be ignored by simply crushing your oppenents stall aspects with powerful wallbreakers. You have access to many wallbreakers here including Kartana and the all powerful Cameruptite Magearna. Another important learning point about this team is speed control. With the varying amount of speed tiers in all the pokemon (from Groudon to Papercut) and as well as priority speed control from zygarde, this team will help the user learn about the importance of going first in the MnM meta. Last of all, it includes some of the biggest threats in the meta to help the user familiarize with them.

Most of all, this team is VERY EASY TO PLAY. For the most part with this team, all you have to do is pick the right pokemon to beat your opponents, choose to boost or not, then sweep.

Now to show why this team is actually quite okay competitively.

By the way, this is my very first pokemon team analysis, so I might be a little bad, please don't judge.

KARTANA

Kartana forms an extremely potent wallbreaker and is able to smash true many pokes as well as being a deadly revenge killer, being able to counter the crucial threats of Zygarde-Altarianite, Terrakion in general, Weavile (not so much a threat anymore, but all-well, worth mentioning as common on ladder), Golisopod, and many other pokemon. It is able to this by its great speed tier of 149 with metagrossite and a incredible Base attack of 191 paired up with tough claws.

Now to get into the specifics. After experimenting a bit with pinsirite and aerodactylite, I decided that metagrossite was the best option. Although Pinsirite gets STAB Return and even stronger attacks, it couldn't counter Altarianite Zygarde, who is a huge threat to this team. After a few more shots, I just felt like aerodactylite simply didn't bring the speed tier high enough after some unfortunate encounters with absolite manaphy as well as other pokes I unfortunately can't remember. After choosing the stone, I ran with the normal ev set.

Now with the moveset. Although I seriously considered defog, it just didn't fit right with the whole spirit of the team, and with the loss of some important steel converage in scared sword, often loss momentum, a crucial point of the team. After experimenting a bit, I found that return was usable, but a little too specific and chose to ignore it.

MAGEARNA

Now for Magearna, that best role compressor for the tier. This was a very difficult choice due to the sheer amount of roles Magearna could play. Through some experiments, I decided I had to choose between Sablenite or Cameruptite Magearna. Although they both have their ups and downs, I had trouble with opposing Magearna, hence the choice of the Cameruptite Flash cannon set. After choosing the set, the rest was easy. I chose the ev set as I found any special defensive investment was kinda useless as Magearna sadly couldn't stomach through the special attacks anyway.

PRIMAL GROUDON

NOTE: Set 2 and 3 in the Pdon's Moveset spoiler are the sets I suggest if you want to make a switch

The team needed stealth rocks without letting down momentum. Though I experimented with terrak rocks for a while, I felt that its ability to set rocks was very unreliable, hence tanky groudon. Going for the tanky wallbreaker with the simple 252 HP / 252 ATK / 4 SPEED (the 4 Speed being to outspeed other tanky groudon which aren't -Speed). I went through loads of sets with Primal Groudon, and if you really want to the full moveset (and ev) history you can click the spoiler below.

I firstly used a typical tanky groudon set, with dragon tail instead of roar for its ability to better handle lucarionite zygarde (altarianite I normally dealed with kartana). However, I felt that it let the opponent gain way to much momentum with Kyogre, a threat which already could have destroyed my team, to the point of extinction as precipice blades simply didn't do enough damage, hence the next set.

The EV spread allows it to survive a non-crit Lunala MMM so it could hit back, while giving way more atk evs in order to deal serious damage. The extra damage I felt groudon dealt out was extremely helpful. I also changed lava plume to smack down after witnessing Chazm's horrific post about Latiasite Magearna beating Pdon.

I decided to try a special set out for primal groudon due to cameruptite magearna now being able to beat latiasite (few...). Not much to say here. Hidden Power Ice instead of roar as phazing is less helpful when all your pokes pile up so much offensive pressure that your opponent can't set up in the first place.

This is the FINAL set for pdon that I decided on. After deciding that Pdon had enough bulk to set up stealth rock even without the +Nature, using cameruptite magearna as a better lunala crippler, I went on with a tanky wallbreaker set to further enhance the offensive potential of the team. This set has been the most successful for me at least, and is easier to play for beginners.

TERRAKION (Note: Alt. Set below)

Terrakion is just the usual pinsirite. Straightforward. Chose it as it resists pinsirite -ate speed and its great at wallbreaking. If you really want to help with speed control, and I ran sometimes, diancite is perfectly possible.

I have been wanting to drop a team too for sometime, the following team actually has seen quite a lot of success being undefeated in ladder plays and tour games to my knowledge. Super s/o to both Andyboy and xavgb for helping me optimize it in early stages.
It is quite simple in it's premise, hence its bland name Webs Explosion Spam.

Well the start is Shuckle for obvious reasons, webs + being a really good defensive pivot for the team, specially since the games rarely stretch past 15-20 turns. Contrary to popular use, our shuckle here is Gyaradosite, as from the testing phase of this team, I felt like one of the biggest threat is actually turn 1 lunala. So being able to safely encore it without getting severely weakened by z-moongeist is quite nice. As for downside, you no longer take Groudon fire moves well at all, but in those cases, just getting webs up or rocks up, should be beneficial while staying in normal form.

Now for the second mon, I was clear the I definitely wanted lunala on the team, due to it's match-up vs opposing defoggers (Mandi wasn't popular back then). There isn't much to say about it, that you guys don't know already, amazing defensive buffer for a HO team, nuke and what not, lunala easily troubles most teams lacking a Mandibuzz or Blissey.

Now next up is my favorite mon, well sue me I love pdon. Pdon is easily the most threatening mon on webs, being able to hit obscenely hard from both sides of the spectrum, as well as like lunala being amazing defensively as well.

Now the next two mons, I will group them together, considering how similarly they function. Explosion, well I won't say broken, but on webs its seriously good being able to pass through resists just by it's sheer power. Adding to that really good typings of both the mons is just the icing on the cake. Not to say, both the flying mons do amazing work against opposing web teams and more often than not break down opposing defensive cores for a zygarde/pdon sweep. I have even experimented with u-turn on lando over return actually, considering that i once realised lando was never my sweeper and I rarely clicked it anyways, so U-turning on something like skarm coming in saves you the hassle of being forced to explode to keep your webs up, or if they predict your explosion and just roost.

Now the final piece of the puzzle is Alt zygarde, now while in initial phases, I caught a ton of flak for using zygarde on webs because it was defog bait. While that's true, but the whole point of zygarde on this team is to just pick the scrapes of what's left, and it pretty much on it's own makes sure I don't just get bopped by Zera / Noivern aka two of the biggest threats to webs currently.

Threatlist : While the threatlist isn't really that big as long as one plays super aggressively, I'll leave some replays to showcase them, there is always ditto, while there are counterplays like both lando and mag being opposite natures, meaning to deal damage ditto will have to explode on one of them, Groudon living a blades from full and in return killing it's ditto counterpart. Zygarde/Lunala both live eruption from opposing pdon. Only thing stopping from making it losing badly to ditto, is the simple fact that you don't really need to set-up much through the course of the game, as long as you know what's your win-con. Some other stuff like pins mag could be really annoying to face, but again manageable. Also there are pinsirite mons like kartana or terrak which will be always threatening to webs, but here again presence of Zygarde helps a ton, after some chip.

yeet

There is no definitive best Pokemon, but you can check the Viability Rankings to get a feel. However, I will explain the Pokemon that are best in a certain category

The jack of all trades is arguably Altarianite Zygarde, good in almost any matchup due to its revenge killing capabilities and wallbreaking power as well as a capaility to tank hits from otherwise difficult to wall breakers such as Red Orb Raikou and Victini.

The best mon that can do the most varied things is either Primal Groudon or Magearna - Primal Groudon has a bunch of extremely solid sets; particularly its defensive set and the underrated Rock Polish variant that most people fail to prep for. Magearna is the Pokemon that can use the most stones and is arguably the most splashable Pokemon in Mix and Mega - however, you do have to account for its flaws if you wish to make a solid team with any of its variants, although doing such a thing isn't too hard with the majority (the only difficult one I could see is probably Trick Room Cameruptite teams).

As for a sheer wallbreaker, Terrakion comes pretty much second to none. It is the hardest Pokemon to consistently wall in the metagame and most teams generally have to resort to revenge killing and solid pivots to beat its Lucarionite set, and its Pinsirite set could still come out of nowhere, taking that mon with it. However, it can be quite difficult to build with, so take that into account when using it.

Welcome to the community, and I hope you have fun playing Mix and Mega!

the only connection in all of my most consistent teams was blissey for a reason. the subject of best mon is fairly subjective anyws, so idk why there is a problem with wat i said(unless its some unranked shit lol). should just warn the dude who asked the question, and not me who gave an answer

Cress was almost banned in the beginning of SM and it's UR now so clearly what a Pokemon has done way in the past means absolutely nothing to it's current viability in the metagame. Can we stop with the shitposts now thanks.

Now onto a more relevant subject, Mix and Mega is still in need of writers for OM Analyses within the Contributions and Corrections section of the forums. If you are good at writing and have the metagame knowledge, be sure to reserve a Pokemon and write an analysis for it! It's a very helpful resource for new and even seasoned players to study, so it's very important that we get these written